Thursday, September 13, 2007 Athens & Ouzo

I have set my alarm to wake me, but I kept waking early because I was nervous about missing the boat (9:30 am). The church bells ring very early for service, around 6:45 am. The church is right behind the hotel but I hadn't heard them other mornings. When I left the hotel I wanted to take pictures of it, but the doors were still open and people coming out of it and I felt awkward treating their place of worship like a tourist attraction so alas no pics of St. George church.

I got up and had more yogurt with muesli and honey and reluctantly checked out. My rate was 35E/night. A steal!!!! Hotel Galini accepts credit cards.

I left the hotel around 8:45 and made a leisurely walk to the pier along the sea road, stopping for phictures along the way. I buy some more postcards and a magnet and the boat (Blue Star Ferries this time; 29E) arrives about the same time I do. I am directed up to coach class. There is a small nonsmoking indoor portion with reclining seats so I snag one. Most people are outside on the deck. All is well until Paros when all the children of Greece get on the boat and sit next to me. I put in earplugs and dozed until about 1:30.

We were about an hour from Athens so I decided to spend the rest of the time outside. First order of business was to find a bathroom, which is not easy! There are ship maps everywhere, and they have the bathrooms marked, but there are no signs directing you to the WC. I kept trying to orient myself to the map and then find the bathrooms but I couldn't. I finally located some on the uppermost outdoor deck at the front of the ship.

Now I was hungry and bought a small spanakopita from the Flocafe (the same concession as on the Nel ke) for 1.90E. Despite repeated announcements not to put your stuff on a seat so others may sit, it's hard to find a seat with all the bags piled on them. I ask a Greek family if I can sit at their table and they kindly indicate that's fine. The spanakopita is actually good, if overpriced, and the 7 Day Sesame Bagel chips are delightful! I couldn't stop eating until I finished them all.

I go to the railing to watch our arrival into Piraeas and am again struck by how gigantic and dense Athens is! I really hate to think of what the commute is like. It wasn't as evident in person, but in the picture you can also observe the city's legendary smog.

While we were approaching the port some birds were flying alongside the boat. They were going at a slightly faster speed than we were and it took me a while to figure out what was wrong with this picture. It finally dawned on me--they were gliding. no wings flapping, just riding the wind. It was really cool looking (even if I am totally freaked out by birds), but I couldn't get my camera out fast enough to get a picture. Now that I'm familiar with Piraeas it's a cinch to find the metro when we arrive.

On this trip I decided to do something I had never done before, something that felt very daring and maybe even a little scary...stay at my first youth hostel. At the age of 33. My flight out of Athens was set for 7:35 am. The airport is about an hour drive from the city, so to be there two hours before my flight I was going to have to leave Athens at...4:30 am. Ugh!

I looked into staying at the airport, but the Sofitel, the only hotel on the airport grounds, was 220E/night, way beyond my budget. There is a Holiday Inn "near" the airport that offers a free shuttle, and rooms were only 110E/night, but I had no sense where it was really located and didn't know if the shuttle would be running as early as I needed to.

Given these circumstances, I decided that rather than pay for a hotel for just a few hours I would try a hostel, and use the money I saved to get a cab, which would be about 50E at that time (cab rates double in the off hours, and 4:30 am is an off hour fo sho). I was very happy with my decision When K and I passed the Holiday Inn on our metro ride from the airport when we first arrived in Athens. It's not really that near the airport and is in the middle of cruddy nowhere. I'd rather take a little longer ride to the airport while staying in the heart of Athens.

Athens Backpackers had good reviews online, so I took the plunge. I had to pay a deposit, but it was only $5, which I could afford to lose if I chickened out at the last moment. I had no trouble finding it from the Akropoli metro stop using the directions on the website. It's an additional 22.50E on top of my $5USD pre-payment, plus a 5E cash deposit for the key, to be returned when I check out and give them back the key. The guy at the desk is friendly and cute (if 10 years younger than me), and the cute Aussie girl with him compliments my "sunnies." I love the Australian slang, it's so adorable! Jess kept talking about putting on her "swimmers" to go in the water. Cuteness!

I'm on the third floor (fourth floor to Americans) and I was vastly relieved when the desk guy told me I could use the lift to get my suitcase up there. I had really not been looking forward to hauling my suitcase up the obligatory marble spiral stair. I don't carry anything nonsensical with me, like a blowdryer, and I had half as many clothes as days, but everything still adds up and the suitcase was around 35 pounds by then. I'm assigned to Dorm 7, which was nice and clean with three sets of bunkbeds and an en-suite bathroom. There are a few other suitcases in there but no people, so I refreshed myself and headed out. Linens are included on the beds, though towels are not, and can be rented for 2E according to the website. I wasn't carrying shower flip flops with me and had planned to just be gross and not shower.

My first mission was to walk to Syntagma Square. My Plan A had been hard core: stay at Athens Backpackers and take the bus to the airport. Then I looked at the map and realized it was about 400 meters between the hostel and Syntagma Square, where the airport bus picks up and I thought I'd go with Plan B, take a cab. But I wanted to make sure Plan B was necessary. Really, not even so much for the money. A 50E cab ride to the airport was not going to break me financially, but it would wound my pride in being a self-sufficient traveler a little. In Italy I took a cab only from the train station to the hotel in Rome when I first arrived. For everything else I used buses or trains. In Scandinavia I didn't take any cabs at all. I had already ruined my no-cab record in Naxos, but still. So far no cabs on the mainland.

I arrive in Syntagma and decide the walk is far, but doable. I buy my bus ticket in advance for 3.20E (versus 50E for a cab!), again thinking it's so little that if I chicken out and do a cab I won't have lost much (except my pride). I should have researched it more, though; I could have saved myself .80E at Piraeas! The 3.20E gives you unlimited rides on metro and buses plus one-way fare on the airport express bus for the 24 hours after it is validated, so if I'd bought it Piraeas I could have started using it then for my metro ride instead of buying a .80E single ride ticket. Again, not the money, just a blow to my "savvy traveler" ego.

That taken care of, it was time for my last sight-seeing in Greece. Across from Syntagma Square is, well, the Syntagma (parliament), with its ceremonial guards. To get to them I had to walk through a giant field of pigeons. I am very creeped out by birds, but they were not in the least disturbed by me.


The guards' patrol is a very elabroate routine performed by two officers in perfect unison, involving high knees and kicks and pauses and making the most of the taps on their shoes. They are in traditional costume, which is warm and they are sweating on this hot day, but it's their lack of sunglasses that gives me the most sympathy. Ouch on the eyes! After they finish and go stand near at the guardhouses (where their heads are shaded, at least) a woman goes and stands next to one of them for a picture and he doesn't flicker an eye.

After that spectacle I was off to the Benaki Museum. I knew they had free admission and late opening hours on Thursdays, and was glad this day just happened to be a Thursday. Although it's free ou still have to get a ticket at the admission desk, and also turn in your camera at bag check. It is a really wonderful world-class museum focusing mostly on Greek history from pre-history to the mid-19th century. It was the private collection of the scion of a wealthy shipping family so there is some mishmash going on, with several Egyptian artifacts mixed into the collection. There is a lot of jewelry and clothing, as well as elaborate Byzantine carved wood.

It's a really big collection and you could spend all day here, but (again with the nice chronological arrangement) you can breeze through in about an hour or two, stopping at the pieces that interest you. At this point in my trip breezing was all I was up to! Also, it was hard to stay in because the smell of smoke just permeated the museum. I think it's that the museum cafe, on the third floor, had the doors open to its balcony where people were smoking and the wind just carried it through the whole building. Priceless treasures, people! Can we not refrain from smoking for a couple of hours??? The museum shop has some lovely pieces in it...none of them with prices. They just have numbers and I suppose you're meant to ask the cashier how much things are. I figured it was an "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" situation so I retrieved my camera and crossed the street to the National Gardens.

I sit on a bench in the National Gardens, enjoying (for the first time that day) some fresh smoke-free air and the greenery. I see some attractive men jogging in tank tops and little shorts and stumble upon the obligatory unmarked ruins, picturesquely overgrown. I enjoyed wandering all the little paths, knowing there was no way to get lost because I could just head toward the noise of traffic and find myself on a busy street. I wound my way trhough and emerged near Olympian Zeus and headed up into plaka. I bought a baklava (1E) because I hadn't had one all trip, I realized. It was rich and delicious.

It was my final shopping excursion, so I bought some evil-eye pendants to make into necklaces for gifts. The teenage girl who was working the shop pointed out some bronze figurines made by her father; they were cute but I just don't do figurines, unfortunately.

Then it was off to buy my glass! I stopped into a shop that had some pieces that caught my eye (really, all the shops in Plaka are the same and I don't remember the name or location). The owner is friendly, very slightly pushy but not too much with the hard sell. Good for him because I would have walked out if he was. For some reason he thinks it is important to me that he has sold to many other Americans, and he pulls out his shipping receipt notebook and starts reading off destinations--New Jersey, Oregon, Texas. I dithered between red and blue and finally decided on red. The marked price was 69E, but he gave me a "discount" (I assume everyone gets the discount, and I might have gotten more of one if I was at all adept at or comfortable with bargaining) to 62E and wrapped it well in bubble wrap and packing tape.

I was hungry, but it was about 5:00, too late for lunch so I got an ice cream cone, vanilla and pistachio for 3.50E. Not worth it, not great ice cream. I wandered back to the hostel looking for postboxes for my last postcards, but there were only express postboxes. Curses!

In the dorm room, three girls were sitting around chatting and I totally inserted myself into the conversation. They were Anna and Justine, two Polish girls with absolutely perfect English. They were beyond fluent and into native speaker level. It was just phenomenal. If I'd had to guess I'd have thought Anna was Scottish (where she's studying) and Justine Australian. There was also a Canadian girl, Christina, who was having a little trouble adjusting to travel ("Athens sucks" was her conclusion).

We talked about our travels and our lives and they were suitably shocked by my advanced age (they ranged from 23-25). We decided to head to the hostel's rooftop bar, which is one of the features mentioned by all the reviews. It really has a stunning view of the Acropolis! This was not like Art Gallery's lean-over-the-railing-and-crane-your-neck balcony, it's got an unobstructed lovely view. Of course I hadn't brought my camera.

Shots of ouzo were .50E so we took turns treating. I hadn't had ouzo yet (despite the gift from our Galaxidi Poseidon Hotel host) and I *never* do shots, but it was actually quite nice. The anise taste isn't overwhelming and it warms, rather than burns, its way down. The bar appears to own only six shot glasses. We had to wait for our first round until the shotglasses were available, at which point the bartender rinsed them in a little running water and filled them up. We reasoned that the alcohol surely killed any germs that might linger. We met some other travelers and the atmosphere was very convivial.

It was getting chilly so we went back to the room for wraps. There were rumors of a pub crawl starting at 11, but then it was pushed back to 11:30 and we decided to go off on our own (for which I was much grateful; three shots of ouzo was quite enough for me, especially on an empty stomach). I had the most cartographic knowledge of the area, which wasn't saying much, so I was in charge of navigation. I went to Plaka the only way I knew how, by finding Olympian Zeus and walking up. It was a very quiet night. I hadn't realized Plaka was ever that dead.

I managed to find Ksenios Zeus but the owner told us he was closed! Sob! We wandered back down and saw a restaurant with a rooftop dining area, called Elaias (Eλαιας), Olives. There were only one or two tables filled, but the waiter said they were still open so we headed up. It looks fancy but the prices are only one or two Euro above the norm and the view is quite nice. I had the grilled mushrooms and the fried potatoes, and both were delish. The potatoes were rounds about 1/4 inch thick rather than fries, and the mushrooms were the fantastic Oysters. Justine and Christina had moussaka, and Anna had the stuffed tomato. The bread is warm rolls...that have clearly been warmed all night and are quite hard by the time they get to us. There are also some little crackers with sunflower seeds on them with olive oil for dipping and some really nice, not-too-salty olives.

We all enjoyed our food and conversation, but it was getting cold and the waiters were clearly ready to close up. The girls were amazed when I asked for the bill in Greek, which really amused me. Here Anna and Justine are telling me IN ENGLISH how impressive that I can say one sentence in Greek! Actually, it's not even a sentence because it doesn't have a verb. It's just a phrase, "The bill please." {To loghariazMO parakaLO.) While they speak English as though native speakers! I don't think one phrase is particularly impressive. I had 35E remaining in cash, so I threw it down. I wished I had more so I could pay the whole bill, but they each only had to pay 5E, so the total (with tip) for the four of us was 50E. I remember how much that sort of thing meant to me when I was that age and broke, someone unexpectedly paying for a nice meal, relieving me of the little pit in the stomach at the cost.

We got back to the hostel around 1:10 am and make our farewells. We were all a little sad I would be leaving so early and wouldn't be able to hang out with them the next day.

You can see all my photos from Athens, and all the pictures from this trip to Greece if you'd like.

Sunday, September 9, 2007 Athens-Market, Museum, and Malaise

We woke up around 9 and were still quite tired. The long days of sightseeing were beginning to take their toll, but we had planned a fairly light day for ourselves. Had another not-worth-8E breakfast at the hotel, this time without incident thank goodness.

I knew that Sunday was the day for the Monastiraki Flea Market and was looking forward to doing my gift and souvenir shopping. I had avoided buying much up to now, planning to take care of it all this day. I misread my notes and walked us all the way up to the Central Market, where fruits and vegetables and all sorts of foodstuffs are sold...during the week. It was deserted. You could practically hear crickets chirping. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't have worried about such a mistake but I felt horrible about using K's dwindling energy reserves for a fruitless walk. She was also cultivating some wicked blisters and every step was a stab of pain.

We walked back down to Monastiraki, where K had gently pointed out perhaps we were headed as I confidently bypassed it and marched us all the way to the Central Market, but she did not make any I told you so-s as we made our way back down. She is in need of sheets and one of the few open shops we passed was a linens store, but the prices were crazy! 50E for what looked like poly-blend sheets! We had passed an Ikea near the airport, and K decided she'd stop there for her home furnishing needs on her way back home.

We got to Monastiraki and it was clear we were in the right place. There was tons of stuff, most of it junk. There were lots of made in China gewgaws and doodads, and a little bit of everything else, including one table of plumbing supplies! We slowly wandered (the only way to move in the packed streets) our way to Abyssinia Square, where the antiques are. It got a little more interesting here, lots of glassware, coins and stamps, old newspapers and magazines, and furniture. I guess real Athenians must come here at least on occasion, as I don't know how many tourists are in the market for furniture!

I had been eyeing the textiles I'd seen several places in Greece, beautiful white cotton tablecloths with Battenburg-type lace work. I sew, and while I didn't want to spend my limited time trying to find fabric stores, I wanted to get some kind of textile to work with and knew I could make something interesting out of a tablecloth. At one of the stands I found a large white tablecloth with fairly simple lacework on it, and a few spots that looked like they might (but not for sure) wash out. The woman said 20E. I cannot bargain. I've done it a few times in my life but find it a wretched experience. It does not come naturally to me, to put it mildly. K has more experience with it, and told me to tell the woman I'd think about it. I figured I'd look around before committing, anyway, as I hadn't realized this sort of textile was common in Greece so I had done no research and had zero knowledge what I should pay.

I walked around and looked at a few more textiles, but none were as large and as simple as the tablecloth (simple being necessary for a garment! I will line it, but I don't want to look like I'm wearing Swiss cheese). At one stand I picked up a smaller placemat sized piece and a little boy asked me, "Thellate?" This was one of the few things I had learned from my Pimsleur tape--it means "Do you want it?"--and I was able to bust out with "Then thello, efharisto" (I don't want it, thank you), which startled him a bit, I think.

I went back to the original stand. I found something else I liked, a round blue tablecloth with white tape flowers on it and a scalloped edge finished in white. The woman says 20E. I ask her how much for the blue piece and the white piece and she says 50E! I guess the price has gone up? I tell her she said 20E before for the white tablecloth and she says she said 30E. Her English is small (and I am not complaining, my Greek is much smaller) and it is possible "twenty" and "thirty" feel alike in her mouth and she said the wrong one. 50E is more than I plan to spend so I walk away. I was really walking away--knowing I'd probably regret the decision--but she thought it was part of my gamesmanship and asked me to make an offer. I said 40E, she took it. So I really don't know if I bargained or not, considering I thought 40 was the price.

I really really didn't know if I was being had or not but I loved the two pieces. They were certainly cheaper than the equivalent items would have been in the States, but had I been at home I wouldn't have bought them because I never buy nice things for myself at home. That alone made it worth it to buy them. In Naxos I checked out some similar textiles; judging from those I got a good deal. A piece the size of a large placemat, slightly more fancy, was 15E. Mine were used, not new, but I think I can extrapolate that I actually did quite well, though who knows if the price of used goods is much lower than the price of new. Given how un-materialistic the Greeks seemed (not that I had any contact with everyday Greek life), though, that would surprise me.

I was frustrated in my quest for gifts, though. There was too much to look at, and no prices listed of course, so the only other thing I got was a 3D wooden dinosaur puzzle for one of my nephews. Other gifts would have to be purchased from a tourist shop, the way god intended.

We went back to the hotel so I could drop off my purchases just as the housekeepers were about to get to our room. When we left it 15 minutes later they were gone. Oh dear, we feared we had missed housekeeping service again.

We walked down to the Metro and headed for Viktoria station and the Archaeological Museum. The Metro ticket machines are fairly easy to operate. A one-way ride for an adult is .80E. There's a big button that says .80E, press it, put some money in (coins only; it gives change if you don't have exact), and it spits out your ticket and your change (if any) below. You can also buy your ticket from the window, if the machine is intimidating. When you head into the platform area there are yellow validating machines and you must validate before entering in. Our tickets were checked for validation on most of the legs of our journey. Failure to validate is a huge fine.

The Metro is easy to navigate; just three lines. They are referred to by number, but each has a color too and being from DC I am used to the color system. There are system maps above every door of every car so you can check your progress. Stations are announced in Greek and English...sort of. A woman's voice first says, "Epomini Stassi" (at least that's what I heard) and then the name of the station. Then it says, "Next station," and the name of the station again. The station name in the English announcement is not anglicized in any way, so unless you have a good ear from Greek it doesn't help you out much. But signage is good and it would be hard to get lost.

As the Viktoria metro stop is the easiest way to access the Archaeological Museum, I assumed there would be giant signs directing you toward it. No such luck! We got turned around and of course walked the wrong way for a block (again, my fault, again, K's blisters) before orienting ourselves. For future reference, if you exit from the Heyden St. exit there's a big street 180 degrees behind you. This is the 3rd September Street. Great, you think, the Archaeological Museum is on a street named after a month, this must be it. But no. The Archaeological Museum is on the 28th of October Street. Ay! It seems almost intentionally confusing. You can either turn back around and walk down Heyden to 28 October and make a right, or make a left down 3 September, left on a side street, and then right onto 28 October. Once you're on the right street in the right direction the museum is very easy to spot on the left about three blocks up from the metro.

The entrance ticket to the National Archaeological Museum is 7E; photography is allowed with no flash. It is a huge collection, arranged chronologically and by art form (statues, pots, funeral markers). One of its star collections is its Mycenean Gold, which is indeed intricate and exquisite and there's just so much of it. Actually, though, I feel the Archaeological Museum in Thessalonika did a better job with its collection gold (Macedonian not Mycenean, but to my untrained eye many of the techniques and motifs were similar), maybe because of the simple fact that there are some windows in the museum in Thessalonika while the Athens museum's gold collection is in an inner gallery with no natural light.

In visiting all these museums with their simple-to-comprehend chronological collections I finally came to understand what is meant by "The Dark Ages." I never quite got this before, but in the Greek museums it's starkly played out for you. Most collections start around 1200-800 BC, with pottery in symmetrical but simple shapes painted with geometric designs that are impressively regular but have no depth or sophistication. Around 500 BC you start getting finer workmanship; the metals are done in filigrees, the pottery decoration becomes figurative, the statuary more detailed to mimic the human body. Within the next couple hundred years technology in the decorative arts explodes and you get exquisite works, especially in sculpture, with detail of flowing cloth, movement, playfulness, drama. But then around 1500 AD--2000 years later--you're back to the simple forms and simple geometric designs. Technology stalled for TWO THOUSAND YEARS. That does seem like a dark age. I still don't understand why or how it happened, but now I get the term.




We had read about an unusual Aphrodite in the collection, one who is trying to keep her clothes on rather than taking them off. She is in a red-painted room which makes photographs come out really nicely. I appreciated that thoughtfulness on the part of the curator. She is so intact! Her nose is still there!








In the same room is the famous bronze, The Little Jockey. The details on this are just amazing. The horse's face and mouth is rendered as though the artist made a cast of a real horse mid-gallop to get all the details in.




The Archaeological Museum's gift shop was reputed to be one of the better ones in Greece, but really no dice for us. They had nice postcards and very expensive repro jewelry and miniatures of sculptures, but really nothing in between. I got some postcards. Most of the museum shops focused more on sculpture than jewelry or wearable items. Is there really that much demand for a small sculptural pieces? Most people's homes aren't large enough for such a thing. I can't imagine where they fit in.

We were really exhausted at this point, and crossed the street to the Museum Cafe (not affiliated) for a tiropita (2.50E) and an espresso for K (4E!!!!!). Note that prices are higher for sitting down, which we did. I wrote my postcards and we both zoned out. The shop had an enticing display of gelato in the front so I got two scoops for the road (3.50E), chocolate and strawberry. The names were in Greek so actually it was σokoλαtα (sokolata) and φpαγoλα (fragola, which is a Greek transliteration of the Italian word for strawberry). Alas, the ice cream was not as good as it looked; it was icy and not very rich. I was expecting gelato, I got refrozen generic brand ice cream. Disappointment. I never did end up finding good ice cream by the cone in Greece.

We got back to the hotel around 4:00 and were just dead. I tried to muster some energy to, if nothing else, go to the corner store for one of the good Magnum ice creams. Couldn't. We rested, dozed, and showered and headed out for dinner at 9, a little earlier than had been our habit. As we were both leaving early in the morning we decided to settle up our hotel bill before dinner. The Art Gallery Hotel accepts only cash for payment. Our room rate was 100E/night and we had three nights, plus four 8E breakfasts total (two of us for two days), so our total was 132E. We had 140E, and needed 8E change. The desk woman said she didn't have any change, and seemed to believe that was the end of the story, as though it was our responsibility to run out and buy something to make exact change for her!

I really am not demanding about customer service, but I do expect a business to make it easy for me to give them money. We weren't budging and so, sighing loudly, she pulled out her own purse and we figured out the change situation. While I found the Art Gallery to be a good bargain and the room was perfectly fine and I would still recommend it, I was not impressed with the staff at all. I am fine with a neutral attitude--I don't expect people in the service industry to be ecstatic about their jobs or care about me personally. But a negative attitude, which we got from both the woman who called us racist and the desk clerk who refused to make change, does rub me the wrong way.

That taken care of, we naturally headed in the direction of Ksenios Zeus to enjoy our last meal together and our last meal at our favorite restaurant. I had read many trip reports in which people went back to the same restaurant day after day and never understood why you'd do the familiar when the unknown is out there waiting to be discovered. With Zeus, I finally understood this! We got Greek salad, the oven potatoes, the grilled mushrooms, and a special eggplant dish named after a person, I *think* it was called Eggplant Merakles. K was still trying to recapture the Elusive Eggplant Experience we'd had at Dion. The eggplant was fine, it was sort of a cold eggplant parmesan --cooked eggplant rounds topped with a tomato puree. But it could not compete with the mushrooms and potatoes, that's for sure! The owner had recognized us again and this time he brought us dessert at the home of a nicely-textured walnut cake, possibly made with whole wheat flour and ice cream on the side. The ice cream was not too sweet and very rich...the gelato experience I'd been looking for earlier in the day.

We went back to the hotel, K set her alarm for an obscene hour to make her early flight to Corfu, and fell instantly asleep.

You can see all my photos from Athens and all the pics from this trip to Greece if you'd like.

Saturday, September 8, 2007 Athens-We Came, We Saw, We Photographed

In the morning we took turns washing some clothes in the sink. The water turned gray with mine! Yikes!

When we checked in the desk clerk told us breakfast was not included in our room rate, and we could eat upstairs for 8E. Considering the average price of food in Greece this is ridiculous, but it was so much easier than trying to venture out to find food that we did. I had hoped for 8E that the breakfast would be substantial with maybe a few hot dishes. Ha! It was standard Greek-style continental, with yogurt, honey, jam, cheese, ham, tomato, cucumber, cereal flakes, and some very bad baked goods (bread and mini chocolate croissants). Unquestionably not worth 8E.

There was no water out, only the orange "juice" so I had to ask for some. I felt very uncomfortable because when we had walked in one of the workers (white European, but not Greek) had been talking to the other workers (African) about how un-prejudiced she was from an early age and how everyone had always had a problem with that. She said that Americans were probably racist, *knowing* we were American as we had already spoken to exchange good morning pleasantries.

For some reason, this really really upset me, even though I know that generally the people who feel the need to loudly proclaim how un-racist they are usually end up being very racist indeed. If they really saw no division among people, they wouldn't be talking about race but about the weather or current events. And I'm sure she was making the African women uncomfortable because what were they supposed to do, congratulate her? Thank and admire her? (And by the way, expecting some sort of reverence because of your "benevolence" toward someone of another race is pretty much racist.) Anyway, all this made me feel racist for asking one of them to get me some water because I really couldn't drink that orange stuff and I like to start off my day hydrated. The next morning I brought a bottle of water up with me.

We had bought our 12E combined ticket the day before. It allows entrance to the Acropolis, Hadrian's Library, and five additional sites: The Theater of Dionysius, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Ancient Agora, the Karameiko, and the Roman Agora. We were determined to collect 'em all.

First stop, The Acropolis! There were hundreds of people there so you end up with pictures like this. I love the woman pointing. She's all, "Hey! There's the Parthenon!" and the woman next to her is all, "Hot damn, I believe you're right!" (Click on the pic to enlarge if you are having trouble seeing this tableau.) And indeed, there it was. Most of the guidebooks recommend buying your combined ticket at one of the "lesser" sites to avoid the lines at the Acropolis ticket booth. We already had ours, but really the ticket booth lines didn't seem too long.

There's a lot of scaffolding about so that sort of interferes with the romantic effect of of the photos. It did make for some good photos itself, though, or at least I like this shot of the Propylaia. If scaffolding is what it takes to keep the sites going, I'm willing to have some unromantic pictures from my vacation!

On the Acropolis we were glad to have the Eyewitness guidebook, because when we were entering by way of the Propylaia and wondering what in the world we were looking at we just looked for a picture of what we were facing and voila. I had bought the Eyewitness guide for the Greek mainland, and for Athens I took the Eyewitness Top 10 Athens out of the library. It is a genius book. It gives top 10 sites, top 10 museums, top 10 things to do, and then for the major sites it gives more top 10 lists, Acropolis, Archeaological Museum, Agora, etc. This is fast food tourism at its finest, and we loved it. There is way too much to see, and unless you are a student of archaeology and/or have a month to spend in Athens, having *some* way to prioritize things is a must. K also had her more in-depth Lonely Planet guide which we appreciated for its more detailed information.

You enter by stone stairs that go up through the Propylaia. This is where the crowds were most evident, as the stairs can hold only a finite amount of people so there's a lot of shuffling going on. It was a little worrisome because all it takes is one person to stumble and the whole lot will go down like dominos. As the site is so well-visited there are slick spots. We had a dry day so nobody slipped on the stairs. Once you push through the Propylaia you can spread out on the site.

The Temple of Athena Nike was taken down and transported offsite for conservation (and, like everything else, was to have been completed before the Olympics but is still MIA), so we missed that. Ditto all the objects in the museum. We missed the opening of the new Acropolis museum by three weeks. The whole time we were there they were erecting a ton of little booths on the pedestrian walk that I assume had something to do with the museum opening.

I wonder if England will return the "Elgin" marbles (quotes intentional, as the name is deliberately chosen to obscure their origin) once the museum opens? I understand they feel they acquired them from Lord Elgin fair and square, but they are one of the greatest Greek national treasures and I feel it is unconscionable to keep them. The excuse has always been that Greece cannot properly care for and display them; the new museum was built partly as a response to that and will have an empty room awaiting their return. I saw them when I was last in London and while they are well-displayed, it just not the same to have them in a room in the middle of a building as it would to have them in the new glass-walled Acropolis museum.

The Parthenon is covered in scaffolding and really there were so many people around it that it was hard to get a good long look at the details. There were a few things that struck me, though. I especially loved the lion head waterspouts on the roof. Generally, it's just amazing that it has been standing for so long! The Parthenon is a marvel of architecture because the lines of the columns that appear so perfectly straight are actually not. The columns were designed with a slight curvature, which corrected what the eye would see as an assymetry if the pillars had been perfectly straight pillars. How you figure that out without a computer I can't imagine. Well, I couldn't do it even with a computer.


My favorite place on the Acropolis was the Erechtheion. The most striking feature, of course, are the Caryatids. The ones on the temple are casts of the originals, which are housed in the museum (save the one chiseled out and hauled away by Elgin). I'd prefer conservation over authenticity so that's fine with me. The building is remarkable because its four faces are on three different levels, which is a major architectural and engineering feat. Its placement was careful and deliberate because the footprint had to avoid a lot of sacred sites.

In one corner grows an olive tree, in the spot where Athena presented it as her gift to the city. An olive tree is way better than salt water (that Poseidon was such a one trick pony!) so Athens was named after Athena. The Greek name of the city is actually "Athina"--not a derivation, her actual name.



The Acropolis was built on the tallest hill in Athens, so there is an amazing 360 view of the city. When we came back down from it I enjoyed looking up to see all the people leaning over the wall to view the city spread out below them. You also get nice views up there of the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Temple of Hephaestos in the Agora, which is the most intact temple of its type.

On the hill of the Acropolis but a separate site and a separate tab on your combined ticket is the Theater of Dionysius. I had been having some photo op envy because in Thessaloniki K had me take her picture sitting in the theater at the Roman Forum, and I was regretting not having done the same. I was worried as it looked like all the seating at Dionysius was roped off, but no! I got my shot. The friezes along the back of the stage (when you're facing the stage) are remarkably intact, though most are headless.

While important priests had clawfoot marble thrones for the performances, women were consigned to the nosebleed section. The seating has deteriorated and disappeared as high up as all that, but it's possible to hike up there. I hope the actors had strong lungs. From the top of your climb you can see a niche in the stone face, where there was an ancient shrine (hard to find good information on it--one source says Dionysius was honored there, but the decoration is Artemis and Apollo slaying the children of Niobe) and then later a church to the Virgin of the Golden Cave. It is currently closed, though we could see that an icon of Mary is maintained in the cave.

It was a sunny, warm-almost-hot day and although before we set out from the hotel K had liberally applied her 25 SPF sunscreen (the highest SPF you can find in Europe) and was waering a hat, she was beginning to sizzle. I hadn't realized she had only 25 SPF and therefore hadn't offered her any of my 50 SPF with titanium dioxide (I don't mess around) in the morning. We stopped back at the hotel so she could put some on and I reapplied. I cannot stress enough the importance of good sunscreen! *Everyone* at the Acropolis was reddening except me, it seemed. The sun was strong and perhaps the ozone was thin that day, who knows. I also found a hat to be essential, particularly that day and on our visit to Delphi. All right, dermatologic lecture over.

Next stop, the Temple of Olympian Zeus. Zeus had been our nemesis the day before. Everytime we got lost we found ourselves back at Zeus. We couldn't escape. The upside is that when we were heading for him deliberately we got there easily. Right outside, and no admission required, is Hadrian's Gate, with its famous double inscription. The side facing the Acropolis says "This is Athens, the ancient city of Theseus," Theseus being a famed mythical king, or at least a famed king of mythical exploits. The other says, "This is the city of Hadrian, and not of Theseus." Well then. Hadrian's inscription faced the new modern city. Now both sides face plenty of modernity!

The Temple of Olympian Zeus does require a tab to be pulled off your combined ticket--but they didn't pull ours. At one time 104 elaborate and stately Corinthian columns supported the temple; sixteen (some sources say 15; I didn't count) remain standing. The most recent loss blew down in a heavy wind--a really heavy wind given the size and weight of the things--in 1852. It was left to lay where it fell, which gives a nice poetic feel to the site. Because it's what I do I visited the restroom. It is placed off in a corner and grand marble steps lead down to the marble-floored loo. It has what I call an Italian toilet (no seat--I really wonder where all the toilet seats of Italy went), but was clean and well-equipped with toilet paper and soap. There are ruins of Roman houses on the grounds as well, including some indications of the plumbing system. I am down with the Roman obsession with plumbing.

We were ready for lunch and we miraculously found Ksenios Zeus on the first try. The waiter recognized us from the night before, what a great memory! I have no memory for names or faces. When I worked retail a customer would ask me a question, I'd go look up the answer...and then realize I had no idea who I was looking for. We had a Greek salad, roasted pappers served cold and topped with a garlicky yogurt sauce, the oven potatoes, and of course their wonderful bread. At the end of the meal we both realized that we had each carefully planned our last bite of the meal. K chose potatoes, while I went for the bread. We were both satisfied with our respective plans. With water and Greek coffee for K, the total was 14.5E. Around $10USD for as good a meal as you can wish for. Astounding.

Refreshed, we were ready to tackle the remaining tabs on our combined ticket. We were determined to visit everything. Leave no tab behind! We headed off to the Ancient Agora. It houses another wonderful, edited, accessible by the layperson museum, with some great statuary fragments outside, including this great Aphrodite. On site is the Church of the Apostles with some nice frescoes inside.







The Ancient Agora's star feature is the Temple of Hephaestos, one of the best preserved temples of its type in Greece. Hephaestos was the patron god of metal-working, and some sources say Athena in her guise as patron of pottery and crafts was also honored here. The extant friezes depict the labors of Herakles, and you can see rivulets etched into them, presumably the result of acid rain. The Temple makes some really lovely photographs when the sky is as blue as the day we were there.



On to the Karameikos! The name means "ceramics"; at one point this was the potter's district. However, it is preserved and visited now as the cemetery of Athens. The road that ran through it was lined with memorial stele, stone slabs generally carved with the name of the deceased and with reliefs. The one at left depicts a young mother who has died and is bidding farewell to her child.


Fancier stele are more like a little house with fully articulated figures carved into it, as with the two sisters at right. The one in the photo is a cast that has been placed in situ. The on-site museum, which houses the original, describes the sisters as dreamy and already unconcerned with the affairs of this world.


Periodically, decrees went out against fancy and expensive funeral markers. During those times, and I assume by poorer people no matter what was allowed, simple marble pillars inscribed with the name of the deceased were placed. These have been gathered up and clustered right outside the museum (saw them on the way to the bathroom, natch), which is an interesting sight.

At this point we are flagging. But we are determined to have all the tabs on the combined ticketpulled! Actually, we were already thwarted in that as they hadn't pulled our tab at Olympian Zeus. Curses! Somehow it didn't feel right to tear it off ourselves so at the end of the day our tickets still had one tab left. Anyway, our last site was the Roman Agora. We had a little trouble navigating to it, even though we later realized it is right up from the Karameikos.

The Romans (hence the name) built the Roman Agora to replace the ancient agora, I guess to make the city feel more Roman than Greek. It never really caught on and is quite small compared to the Ancient Agora. That could just be the effect of limited excavations, though.

The most famous site at the Roman Agora is the Tower of the Winds, an octagonal tower with friezes depicting the eight winds. I'm not quite sure what the eight winds are; wikipedia says they are Boreas (N), Kaikias (NE), Eurus (E), Apeliotes (SE), Notus (S), Lips (SW), Zephyrus (W), and Skiron (NW). The Tower told time by the sun (again I'm unclear here--not sure whether the tower itself was a sundial or whether it had a sundial on it), and on cloudy days the water clock inside filled in.

There is a mosque on the site of the Roman Agora, much abandoned and overgrown. We didn't get the chance to visit any mosques (other than Christian churches that had served time as mosques during the Turkish occupation), which was a bit of a disappointment to me.



We were so tired here that we got a little hysterical and couldn't stop laughing. I had K take one last picture of me hanging out at an ancient column and we headed out, having conquered the combined ticket. As we exited the Roman Agora, our final site, I was forced to say, "Veni, vidi, vici," although a better motto would be "We came, we saw, we photographed."




We found our way around the Acropolis clockwise, a first for us. Even though it is quite easy and, well, the Acropolis is a landmark that's really hard to miss, somehow clockwise had eluded us. We stopped in a mini-mart, where I got 4 more postcard stamps and a Choco Magnum ice cream (about 4E total). At the hotel I realized that I had left the door hanger on "Please Do Not Disturb" rather than "Please Make Up Room." Oh well. I ate my melty Magnum ice cream, which is similar to a Drumstick in the US but approximately 1327% better.

It was only 6:30--and we had had a leisurely morning and not left the hotel until 10:30 or so. I'm going to blame our poor stamina showing on cumulative exhaustion. Plus, I was still sick. On the mend, but still sick. It is terrible to get a cold every time I travel, but on the bright side I have a ridiculously strong immune system. I eat a healthy vegetarian diet and am a fiend for the gym, so a cold that would fell a mere mortal merely gave me some misery for 3 or 4 days but didn't slow me down...much. I did nap that evening before showering for dinner.

We figured it would be ridiculous to go back to Zeus and we should try someplace new for dinner so we wandered Plaka. We found To Gerani/Scholarcheio, which had been recommended by my guidebook. It was crowded so we decided to give it a shot. It is a prix fixe meal for 24E for two for five dishes, wine, bread, water, and dessert. Instead of offering a menu, the waiters brings a big tray laden with about 12 prepared dishes, and you choose your food right off the tray. We got yiyandes (giant beans), horta (steamed wild greens, served cold), fried potatoes (also, unfortunately, served cold), meatballs, and unbreaded but possibly fried eggplant. It was very eh. The guidebook strikes out again. Dessert was farina cake.

Our entertainment for the evening was the valet. We were on the balcony overlooking the minuscule parking lot. The valet took cars and mysteriously secreted them away in the maze of Plaka after it was full. It was amazing to watch him casually manuever very expensive cars (saw the only SUV of the trip that night, and a BMW at that) into tiny spots. Then he had a glass of wine. Nothing like wine to aid in the parking of BMW SUVs in winding dark alleys just wide enough for the wandering cats of Athens to squeeze through.

You can see all my photos from Athens or all the photos from this trip to Greece if you'd like.

Friday, September 7, 2007 The Gorge at Livadia and the Best Restaurant in Athens

At breakfast the OJ seems a little more real. We have bread, grapes, donut, and boiled egg again. I am feeling chipper because I have finally had some cold medicine. I didn't want to take it the night before when I bought it because I feared it would keep me awake. Psuedoephedrine is 12 hours of wide awake for me and since I couldn't read the ingredients on the Comtrex I figured I'd play it safe. The only downer was that I woke up with a giant mosquito bite on my forehead, the third eye emerging kind. It lasted for the entire day!

As we eat our hotel host asks us if we enjoy ouzo. We say we haven't had any yet. He left the room and came back with a little bottle for us! That was very sweet. He also called our Athens hotel for us to let them know when we'd be arriving. When I had booked they were very insistent they know exactly when we were arriving. Of course there was no real reason for this and they couldn't have cared less that we alerted them or that we showed up an hour after we had estimated.

When planning the trip we thought we'd relax on the beach in the morning in Galaxidi and then have our drive to Athens in the afternoon. The night before it had been cold and windy. When we woke up the wind had subsided but it was still much too chilly to sit at the beach. Oh well. In the end this was probably for the best. We hit the road about 10:30, stopped only once, and didn't arrive to our hotel until around 5:30; the drive took us longer than we thought. There were lots of coaches on the road to Delphi. It hadn't seemed so busy with the buses the day before, so we must have gotten lucky.

Our stop was at Livadia, which our guidebooks boasted had a Frankish castle and some springs. Really there wasn't much to look at. The town is medium sized and the sights tucked away in it, but as long as you follow the signs and DON'T TURN ANYWHERE you'll get there. There's a little parking area at the springs, and a nice path to walk along to the castle (closed and overgrown) and a little outdoor theater, from which you can see that Livadia has its own monastery in the rock.




The town is built in a gorge, and the stream runs through the middle. We went to a cafe and had a cappuccino (2.5E) for K and cold chocolate (2.7E) for me. This was the first time there was no place to escape the cigarette smoke, no matter where we sat. I think that's because it's not a major tourist area and the cafe was locals only. The Greeks smoke the most of all Europeans. We enjoyed the sound of the water as we had our beverages.

We finished the drive to Athens. It was only minorly harrowing. We had heard about the traffic in Athens and wanted no part of it, so our plan was to go directly to the airport and park the rent car there, and K would pick it up to drive it back to Macedonia. Since she had to do the whole drive back herself I did the driving to Athens.

The traffic on the highway wasn't bad at all, but the speed variances among the vehicles is crazy! There is a speed limit, and I went approximately the limit. The trucks were crawling, and some cars were inexplicably slow as well. Then there were the speed demons. I was constantly changing langes. At home I usually drive in the middle lane, which avoids the dangerously slow drivers and lets the Speedy Gonazalezes pass me if they must. However, in Greece it is polite to pull over to let someone pass, even on a multi-lane road and even when you are not in the leftmost lane. It also appeared that the left lane was unofficially for passing only. There is a 2.70E toll on the airport road.

We parked in P3 beyond the actual parking lot, behind a barbed wire fence. Hmm. We used the nice restroom in the vestibule that connects the parking with the airport, bought our metro tickets (10E for two people; 6E each if purchased separately), validated them with no problem--the machines are right at the entrance and impossible to miss, and then juuuuust missed the train. There are 30 minutes between trains and we were quite hungry by now, with our small breakfast and no lunch. We had some snacks with us and passed the time by reading the guidebooks and foraging what we could. I had taken some more cold meds in the bathroom and on an empty stomach they were making me feel quite loopy.

The metro ride was long and uneventful. We changed at Syntagma to the red line in the direction of Agios Dimitriou and got off at Sygrou-Fix. The Art Gallery Hotel directions told us to exit the station in the direction of Drakou and go 3 blocks up. We went three blocks and I was about to pull out the map to figure out which way to go when K spotted the sign. Yay! I had reserved the Art Gallery in advance; the rate was 100E/night, breakfast not included, and they accept only cash payment. We checked in with no problem, and took turns using the tiny lift barely big enough for one person to get our suitcases upstairs.

We were in room 15 with a window that opened onto an alley, so no air circulation, and it was quite hot in the room. The key had one of those circuit-completing cards that you have to put in a slot by the door to get electricity to the room, and we eventually figured out that the little air conditioner was on the room's circuit so we always came back to a hot room but it cooled down soon enough.

It was too late to really have lunch so we had some chocolates K had purchased at the bakery in Galaxidi; they were like really high class kit kats. Yum.

We walked up to the Acropolis, an easy three block walk from the hotel. For the price it is a real find. We weren't on the fashionable (Plaka) side of the Acropolis, but 100E/night! That's good enough for me. It was chilly and gray, but the clouds opened up over the Acropolis for a cool shot.


We climbed Areopagus rock and got a view of Athens. It is a huge city! And it is wall-to-wall with houses and apartments. There is no green space as far as the eye can see. The rock is fun to climb. There are steps cut into the rock that are narrow and slippery, and a metal grate staircase with a good handrail. I went up the rock steps and down the metal stairs; I find up always easier than down.

We wanted to find Plaka so we consulted the map. For some reason I had it in my head it was a specific square, so we're wandering among the restaurants and tourist shops going "Where's Plaka? Where's Plaka?" and of course we were in it. Finally, tourist shops! We spot some gorgeous glassware, which is the one thing I collect. I decide I will get myself something on my way home. I got a huge bag of thyme in a tourist shop for 1.50E. The same amount at home would have been $5 or $6! K got some saffron for a great orange cake she makes with yogurt and olive oil. Sounds weird but it is really good. We found an internet cafe--the only one we saw in Athens--which was 2E for up to an hour and checked our email and looked at the weather for our islands. Oh noz! Naxos was predicted to be high 70s and cloudy the whole time I was there! What about my beach vacation????

We stumbled onto Hadrian's Library, which has some impressive pillars still standing. There were allegedly notches cut into the back wall for storing manuscripts, but we couldn't really figure out which were notches and which were just age pits. We entered the site thinking it was like Thessalonika--amazing ruins for free everywhere. Underneath the entrance arcade where you can't see is a booth. They sell the combined ticket for entrance to the Acropolis and the other sites for 12E, so we took care of it there very easily.

We decided to head back to the hotel to shower before dinner as we were quite hungry. We got lost, of course. In our wanderings we ran across a restaurant called Ksenios Zeus (ΞENIOΣ ZEYΣ). The owner was standing outside and told us we should have dinner there. He was friendly and not too pushy so we chatted for a while. He said that his restaurant was about to appear in USA Today. The menu looks good and not expensive so we say we'll return for dinner later that evening. The guidebook recommendations haven't been that great and he was friendly so what the hey.

We showered and changed and headed back out. To get to the restaurant from Art Gallery Hotel, walk up Erechthiou toward to the Acropolis, and make a left at Areopagitou, the pedestrian path. Pass Areopagus rock and keep going along the pedestrian path (which is completely unlighted at a stretch; we were glad we'd brought our flashlights). The pedestrian path ends at a steep, slick, horizontally scored driveway that goes down and a little to the right. Ksenios Zeus is almost at the bottom of the driveway. To reach it from Plaka, walk uphill on Tripodon. When you reach a set of stairs off the left with a church at the top (where To Geranos restaurant is), take the stairs and go right (continue the same direction you were going on Tripodon). Ksenios Zeus is the equivalent of a couple blocks up from the church on the left.

There is a lovely large outdoor dining area that technically has a view of the Acropolis, if you can squint through the trees. It's a silly detail, but the napkins are just exquisite. They are like 500 thread count sheets that have been washed into perfect softness that you rub against your cheek to help you fall asleep. I seriously wanted to steal mine, and I am so not that kind of person! (For the record, I didn't, on that or any of our three visits.) I swear one of the nights we were there I did see one guy surreptitiously put his napkin into the breast pocket of his blazer as he walked away.

We were starving. I started drinking water and my nose promptly began to run. I had thought the cold medicine was so effective but actually I was dehydrated. We had a greek salad, grilled mushrooms, zucchini patties, spanakopita, oven potatoes, 2 bottles of water, and 1/2 liter of white wine. It was way too much food. Our eyes were bigger than our stomachs. Three dishes would have been enough. We don't care; we didn't eat lunch so we just spent lunch money at dinner and all the food was so good we would have hated to have chosen to leave something out.

We got the oven potatoes sort of on a whim because they were only 2E and we said, hey, they're only 2E. What a lucky whim! These were the best potatoes I had ever eaten. They're tossed in olive oil and some kind of herbs or spices and baked to absolute perfection. I really couldn't tell what the seasoning was. It was very subtle and to me tasted a little bit like mustard but K didn't taste that. The bread was good as well. Mostly the Greek bread is terrible, approximately the taste and texture of Wonder bread. This was a good hearty bread with lots of texture, rubbed with a garlic clove, drizzled with olive oil, grilled, and then topped with coarse salt. Divine. We absolutely stuffed ourselves. There was no dessert at the home but we couldn't have eaten another bite anyway. It was 32E very well spent. We waddled/sloshed (with all our water)/rolled home and vowed to return for lunch the next day.

You can see all my photos of Livadia and this trip to Greece if you'd like.